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09 July 2021 / David Renton
Issue: 7940 / Categories: Features , Housing , Human rights
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The threat of eviction & life on the brink

52439
David Renton reports on the real-world realities for those left on the verge of eviction

Recently, I represented Ms Silver, a woman in her mid-fifties who had lived in her home for 20 years. She was an agency nurse, and her blue scrubs poked out from beneath a black waterproof coat.

In 2015, Ms Silver suffered a series of delays in renewing her registration as a nurse. The body that handles registrations needed her employers to write to confirm that she worked for them. But her trust managers were always too busy to send the letter. Days became weeks, and in the end Ms Silver went six months without registration. She tried to keep up with her rent, and the benefits advisers told her to declare herself self-employed. She tried to establish an online business selling jewellery, but that work brought hardly any money in. Eventually, the housing association took her to court and obtained a suspended possession order.

A suspended possession order leaves you stuck,

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What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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